12.11.2011

So basically Refresh has hit the big time, yup we have gone commercial! Well, not really but we did get this fantastic opportunity to redesign and decorate an office. It was a learning experience, mostly we learned that office furniture and "cute" do not belong in the same sentence. It was a two month long project. It's not completely finished, but there has been a lot going on and none of it involves pillows or birds, so you know we were out of our comfort zone. Enjoy our BEFORE tour of the office....

Front Reception Area

Another view. You can see the big plans brewing by the blue tape on the floor.

We've done our share of bathrooms, but we had to be educated in ADA compliance for this one.

Office 1

Office 1 with the prints that will be our inspiration.

Office 2

Hallway to Office 3, soon to be the Brag Gallery

Lovely kitchen area

How would you like to face the thought of spending all day in that office? Not so good, so we had to transform it from dreary and depressing to polished and professional.

They will add some signage on the new wall behind the reception desk, but we think it's pretty much perfect!

Couldn't you go for a wall of grey paneling in your house?

So are you getting the whole "nod to the nautical" theme going on? Their logo is a lighthouse.

Have you ever really looked at the reception desks in an office? They are mostly ugly and cheap looking yet, still expensive at the same time. We had to go custom, but it paid off.

The kitchen got a major facelift too. There's still a dishwasher to install, but it's almost there!

Shockingly, the only picture of a lighthouse we could find during our shopping excursions.

Those are laminate floors but they look like hardwood, don't they?

The brag gallery. We hung 26 pictures in one night!

This picture of Balboa Island was the inspiration for the office design.

More Balboa pics. Don't worry, we are still waiting for a conference table to arrive, that's why the furniture is off center.

We mostly focused on the public areas of the office, but we couldn't resist creating a little vignette in this office.

The bathroom might be one of our favorite parts! It went from sterile and pretty disgusting to warm and cozy. Can a bathroom be warm and cozy?

One of our decorating dilemmas, how to hide all the wiring for the computer networks? They are now hidden behind the beautiful mirrored cabinet!

10.22.2011

Even though it's still 90 degrees here in Southern California, we are embracing the fall season. I think Halloween is my second favorite decorating holiday. My kids love it too. It's always hard to feel motivated to get those boxes down, but your kids are begging you to do it. So you do it for them. Once I get started though, it's a little hard to stop. You'll see what I mean.

The Kitchen Branch came back out after a stint of hanging in the garage.

It's the perfect place for our owl to perch.

Isn't he cute?

A skull tree on the lazy susan, what else?

After making the mantle look spooky, I couldn't decide if I should use the banner that tells you it's spooky. It actually makes the mantle look less spooky. But I did it anyway!

I just had the kids have a go with the spider webs. I am really not good at using that stuff!

We've been on the Tower of Terror ride at California Adventure quite a few times recently, so we were chanelling the creepy old hotel look in our dining room.

Of course, we love our favorite doll head with the candle in it to make the eyes glow.

We went to an antique store to find old portraits. We picked out the most evil looking ones. I apologize if these are your relatives.

I think I bought out the last fake black crows in Temecula. I searched high and low to find them.

More creepy relatives.

This was Lindsay's idea. She spent a long time perfecting the cobwebs. If you come over, don't touch them. She will get mad at you!